Articles:

Roadside Breakdown Dilemma So you get a flat and you are stuck on the side of the road, what should you do? Your options are attempt to change the tire yourself or call for help. You may be thinking about what the most affordable option is but perhaps you should think about the safest. First of all you have to get to the spare and jack which is usually buried under a seat or the trunk area. Also on a truck you may have to twist the spare down. There are so many variables here. Too often we see issues with these options. Many times the cable mechanism for the spare is rust and hard or impossible to turn. The jacks are tiny and wobbly and then you get the spare on only to find that it is flat. The spare is almost never checked for air pressure. At that point you may have spent an hour or so on the side of the road just ... read more

Most folks think that the winter is harder on the battery than the summer. It is actually the opposite. The warm weather is what truly deteriorates the battery and the cold snaps usually finish it off. Your battery has plates or cells inside of it and the cells are surrounded by a mixture of acid and water. When we reach the really hot days of summer that water starts to evaporate. As the water evaporates and the battery becomes less and less full, the plates inside the cells lose contact with the acid and begin to short out. Without getting into all of the science behind batteries the chemical reaction that creates the energy is no longer as potent. You may be surprised to find out that your battery has 70% life left but you auto repair shop might be recommending you to replace it. That is because the battery has to have a lot of power for a short amount of time to start your vehicle. A battery at 70% might be too weak to sustain starting your car repeatedly and could leave you strand ... read more

I am the second generation owner of my repair shop. I took over from my father in 2011 and I practically grew up in the bays I walk through every day. I remember a lot of stuff from my childhood and most of it involved being at the shop or the farm. My dad never really let me work on stuff growing up. I was eager to learn and do the job on my own but I always ended up as the helper. I grew up in a time when cars weren’t near as technical as they are now, however in my later years I realize my dad was smart and I wasn’t ready. Many people come in and want to talk to me about souped up cars and while I am mostly familiar with what they have, it doesn’t truly excited me. When I was young I wanted fast car, dragsters, pulling tractors, etc and my dad never let me. He once liked drag racing to a drug habit. Again in my later years I see what he meant. Because of the restraint my dad showed me it gave me more of an appreciation for how things work. My dads guidance helped ... read more